UNC Basketball: Rare footage of Vince Carter dunking in high school

DALLAS, TX - DECEMBER 10: Vince Carter #25 of the Dallas Mavericks makes the slam dunk against Marcus Thornton #23 of the Sacramento Kings at American Airlines Center on December 10, 2012 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

Check out this rare footage of former UNC basketball standout Vince Carter dunking over a player in high school.

Though it appears that we’ve seen the last of Vince Carter on a professional basketball court, the former Tar Heel and 22-year NBA veteran gave us plenty of things to remember him by. The least of which are his dunks, something that Carter is widely considered to be the very best at in the history of the game.

For better than two decades, we saw highlight reel dunks from Carter against every team in the league as a member of the Raptors, Nets, Magic, Suns, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Kings and Hawks. And prior to that, we saw him do it for three years at the University of North Carolina. But apparently Carter’s dunking prowess began way before that.

Take the sequence in the following footage for example, where Carter gets the ball from one of his Mainland (high school) teammates as he leaps completely over an unsuspecting defender and throws down an acrobatic dunk. And although the camera pans up to catch the full brunt of Carter’s thunderous slam, he confirmed via Twitter on Saturday afternoon that he did, in fact, jump over said defender.

It turned out to be just a sign of things to come, because Carter would make a career out of throwing down impressive dunks and posterizing opposing players, both big and small. For instance, who could ever forget the performance that Carter put on at All-Star weekend in Oakland in 2000? Or when he threw down a resounding dunk over France’s Frédéric Weis at the 2000 Summer Olympics? The short answer is nobody.

And despite the fact that Carter has likely played his final game as a professional athlete, we’ll always have fond memories of these dunks and so many others. He’ll also be a slam dunk first ballot inductee into the NBA Hall-of-Fame a few years from now.